World Suicide Prevention Day

By dabain, Northville, MI

September 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day. Unfortunately, most people have never heard of it. I think this needs to change. I know that not everyone has been affected by suicide, especially not to the extent that I have. However, raising awareness of suicide is a vital step to preventing it. This is the aim of World Suicide Prevention Day. It is important to me to inform more people about this day because someone very dear to me attempted suicide.

On that fateful day, my mom came home to tell me that Emma, my older cousin whom I'd looked up to my whole life, had cut herself with knives. She was trying to kill herself and had not told anybody how she felt. I remember asking Mom why anyone would do that. She replied, “Bullying. That's why.”

For a while after that, my mother was even more protective of my brother and me.